C38: Witch on the Loose
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I don't really know how it happened but I find myself sitting at a dining room table with a gorgeous beauty across from me.
There is some hustle and bustle going around here as the woman's summons prepare the table, silverware, plates and bowls. Going in and out of the kitchen as they gather ingredients to cook whilst preparing tea for us both.
Naturally, since I don't trust anything here. I inspect everything before I even touch it. So far, I have not been poisoned or devoured by a tablecloth but who knows. It could be a mimic. My fork could be a mimic.
"Your arse is not a mimic" The beautiful but most certainly deadly creature before me impersonating a woman answers my second worst fear. It(She) can read my mind.
"No, I am not reading your mind. I am reading your body though. It's like a book, your every twitch, examination of random items, the suspicion and doubt you give to everything here. The whispers crossing through your noggin surely aren't letting you relax, that would be far too kind. I've already fulfilled my personal desires in regards to you."
She explains but the thing that crosses my mind is not how she explained all this to me with ease and zero hesitation but that her speech pattern suddenly changed out of the standard Yharmanite pattern and into something more 'modern', still professional in tone but less rigid with the standard 'ye olde' speech voice.
"So I can just leave now? Appreciate it, but before I go, can I just get the rune workshop tool…ya know since you're being so amicable?" I disregard the accent change and try to focus on my survival, of course not without letting my greed get the better of me to try maximizing my benefits here.
"It's quite rude to demand something from your host without even willing to attend a simple dinner." She berates me, waving her delicate finger at me. Though I do not turn into a frog or anything as punishment, only her words. Which are frankly hard to focus on when her sheer allure is mind fucking my old world memories like a vice.
"Am I on the menu?" I ask sarcastically, my brain still in a half dead state, but also fully serious as I prepare to dodge her incoming attack before I'm added to the buffet. Yet she simply leans forward, crossing her hands in a parabola shape with her chin resting upon her hands as her strange but beautiful looking eyes give me a look over from head to toe and licks her lips.
"If you're palatable enough, mayhaps." She states slowly before leaning back into her chair again as the first set of dishes are prepared and set out on the table.
"...." I simply looked at the large portrayal of dishes with some light steam wafting out of the dome lid. I can only fantasize about the variety of monstrous creations beneath it. Braised human heart with a garnish of goat horns and covered in a jellyfish venom marmalade. Unprocessed digestive system of the local oily crows paired with lycan weiner and coated in the 'secret sauce' originally paired with said weiner.
"I took the liberty of taking a little peak at your memories when I gave you my blessing. I hope you don't mind. So many wondrous delicacies to explore and taste. Among other things" She gives me a wink and has her lid lifted off to reveal white smoke swaying out like a contained cloud and what I see completely boggles my mind.
"HOLY FUCKING MOZZARELLA STICK" I practically cheer and sit down like an obedient child and pick up my 'totally not mimic' utensils as my lid is also lifted up. I get my own appetizer of fried cheese sticks and dig in. My enhanced body type ensures I don't suffer from any of the tender heat that wafts off of these snacks.
I eat through half my plate, it has a peculiar aftertaste but it's not bad, it actually makes me look forward to taking another bite like a continuous equation. As you add and multiply certain variable which all certainly amounts to the zero fucks I give as I stuff myself with the proper fucking food outside my own cooking. Before I even realized what I was doing, I suddenly realized something and questioned the witch.
"How did you even get cheese? I know for damn sure not a single Yharnamite would give a single shit about butter or milk. So how did you get cheese?"
She chuckles a bit at my line of questioning as it's so far away from any sort of beastly duties or mystical monstrosities to be hunted. She finds it quite nice, a sort of change in pace to the ravenous pursuit she had so sought.
She has it all now, she must find own path now, wherever it may lead. As such she humors my question, "Thanks to my new gifts, I realized that I am in complete control of this building, including the time anomaly ongoing outside which also affects this place. With this, I've isolated a few pieces, accelerating time as I need for my minions to complete their work."
"Your memories lacked the full understanding of how to make cheese itself but the beginning steps sufficed for me to complete the process within just a few minutes of time here. Do enjoy your hard work" She seems to enjoy teasing me as I'm about to take another bite when I stop mid way with my mouth open.
"Where did you get the milk from?" I ask in all seriousness, the mozzarella stick floating before my face. I suddenly got the feeling that something that shouldn't be milked, was.
"Do you really wish to know where such a creature came from when there are few in this city?...No it is not a mimic or sausage version of my own summons. I have no desire to see you devoured from the inside out." She licks her lips again, seemingly savoring her own snack but her eyes rarely leave me. I put down the delectable snack and am about to get up and simply leave when the next set of trays is brought out for us.
To be honest, I have already had my fill with the cheese sticks and my body re-entered a state of paranoia. Yet I am once again shocked that it's literally just chicken Alfredo. If the witch suddenly offered me unlimited breadsticks and or salad, I would have assumed she had crossed over and raided the closest Olive Garden to my house before coming back.
I am about to continue eating once again when I notice a certain something ticking up in my status.
It's Frenzy.
I try to ask the system what the cause of it was and it surprisingly tells me.
[Host has consumed multiple pieces of Winter Lantern Flesh]
'But ... .i've only eaten cheese sticks lately. NO, you cant do this to me. NOO' "NOOOOOOOOO" I punched myself in the gut whilst using my fingers to annoy my Uvula in the mouth.
The double stimulation causes me to throw up all over the table yet the frenzy buildup hadn't stopped yet. At this moment, my body seems to explode with projectile blood vomit from every orifice. Thankfully a second helping of frenzy does not start as all the recent food is justled out of me.
"Hah hah" "Goodness, what is the matter with you. How could you waste such delicacies" The witch is baffled by the situation, though I do believe it all to be an act now as any measure of goodwill I might have had is thrown to the garbage. I instead release the pent up rage that i've accumulated all my previous life.
"You Sanctimonious whore. You dare tarnish my cherished memories of FUCKING CHEESE STICKS with your BULLSHIT. Kangaroo jack 'bout to give you these hands you accursed bitch. You fucking poisoned me by having me eat a fucking Winter Lantern." I lampooned insult after insult before not being able to control my rage anymore as I draw my gun and shoot at her.
She vanishes and suddenly I get a whole new view….Backwards.
"Now now, I had been under the impression that your body could handle it with you having ascended mentally. I apologize as I was wrong." With my neck twisted 180*, I come face to face with the witchy bitch who had broken my neck yet I feel my body instinctively resisting while I'm also suffocating.
Yes, I did not die from having my head nearly twisted off. To help my system save me, I activate the chaos step which immediately ignites with me being covered in a thin film while the witch begins to turn into an ice sculpture. Yet as her body is encased in ice, she teleports away lest the ice spread inside of her body.
"Hah hah" The moment she was frozen, my neck snapped back with a small crunch and I could breathe again. I feel a hollow feeling in my chest as my health dips to roughly one or two hit points before I jam myself with a vial and get up to half back.
I keep chaos step active as I properly start the boss fight against the Witch of Hemwick. Charging at her while she avoids me by teleporting around. She would send a few bolts of arcane energy at me every so often before zipping away again once I got close. I landed a few hits but it was only against her barriers.
Swish swish swish.
From all corners of the room, various summons rush out or are summoned to the point of making the room cramp and stifling as I'm essentially crushed to death by an angry black friday mob. Sure a good majority froze or blew up thanks to chaos step but I ran out of stamina to keep running it so much and I was eventually crushed.
[You Died]
I awaken back at the entrance of Hemwick Charnel Lane with a rage boner as I consider running back in there to try my damndest to kill her even if I don't get my 17k echoes back. Unfortunately the system informs me of the worst news possible.
[Witch of Hemwick has consumed cursed substance and trait: Anomalous House of Horror has been replaced with Free-Roam]
"Oh no" I look around expecting her to immediately come to me and hunt me down. The only consolation prize from her supposedly eating me is that she didn't somehow grow stronger, crossing level 100.
Knowing that she might seek me out, I turn around and make a run for it away from Hemwick Charnel Lane. 'ill take my chances with the forest and Byrgenwerth than her'
"Hah, oh you make me quite sad hah. Running away so soon. Haah" I find that it is resting upon a rock along my chosen path. She has a film of sweat coating her skin as if she had just accomplished a marathon, she has a thin smile on her face as she eyes me with interest.
"I do have to thank you, the fresh air here is quite disgusting but I can work with it to pursue my goals. Now excuse me, I have a date to get back to with your corpse" She licks her vibrant red lips as she disappears with a blip. Where she was, I find that she left behind my meagre echoes which I collect whilst spouting more profanities at her.
"Hey, the only fucking going around here is my dick not my corpses dick." I spout in a random moment of delirium as my brain short-circuited at the implication of what the witch said. The only blessing being that she seems to hold no greater interest in me at the moment.
To change something about the situation, I have to work on getting stronger. Whatever it takes to do so.
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Word Count = 2162
Dinner with the witch, a tragedy in three parts as we get into what the results of the 'grind' look like.
Enjoy
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